


Lethal Literature

by PerfectCrime



Category: Original Work
Genre: Character Death, Gen, Hamlet - Freeform, Help, How Do I Tag, Literature, Murder, not permanently
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-15
Updated: 2018-12-15
Packaged: 2019-09-19 11:53:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,598
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17001162
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PerfectCrime/pseuds/PerfectCrime
Summary: "Ivory had decided to stay, saying that with her and Michael there, I wouldn't be lonely and that we would be able to defend ourselves if the murderer decided to just stop by and have a nice chat. There was a living area upstairs, where we all would stay. So here I was, having something like a sleepover with a hyperactive art student and her pouting cousin in the middle of a thunderstorm.That was also a reason why they stayed. A storm was raging outside. Michael said that he didn't want to be ill, and if he had to sleep here, so be it. "





	Lethal Literature

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! So, this is my first work on Ao3 and was originally a school project. After writing this, sharing with a few people, and writing a few other stories much shorter than this, I posted it here. I hope that you like it!

I was thankful for my employee Ivory’s existence in moments like these.  


“Satya. Michael. Stop bickering. This is the worst possible time for you two to be arguing. There's a murderer on the loose," she snapped.  


"We know. We read the article. ‘A murderer in Blackpool, 12 victims by now. All of them based off of literature.’ Did you know that the detective found a copy of Hamlet at the murder scene? There was half of a bookmark with something like CAWFDBAUC on it. And something that looked like a red candy wrapper? Terrible handwriting, wet bookmark. They think it's a surname. The page was right at the next murder method. Poison-"  


"Satya, be quiet, please. As you said, we read the article. Not only you." Michael glared at me.  


After that, we sat in silence. There was no one else in the library since it was past closing time. Ivory was lounging on an armchair, Michael perched on the other. Both chairs were facing the fireplace. Its flames spread a dim light across the room.  


Ivory had decided to stay, saying that with her and Michael there, I wouldn't be lonely and that we would be able to defend ourselves if the murderer decided to just stop by and have a nice chat. There was a living area upstairs, where we all would stay. So here I was, having something like a sleepover with a hyperactive art student and her pouting cousin in the middle of a thunderstorm.  


That was also a reason why they stayed. A storm was raging outside. Michael said that he didn't want to be ill, and if he had to sleep here, so be it.  


Out of boredom, I decided to study Ivory and Michael's features. Ivory was like the personification of her name. Pale skin, light blonde hair, shining grey eyes. She was a bit shorter than I was, standing at 164 centimetres. I admired how she could move like there was nothing wrong in the world. Michael had the same paleness and grey eyes Ivory had. Under the dim light, he looked like he hadn't slept for days on end. His black hair was ruffled up, and there were dark bags under his eyes. It took me less than a minute to realize that he probably hadn't. Michael was tall, around 185 centimetres. Though it was useful for reaching up to high shelves, it was also annoying whenever he decided that 'Wow, human heads are great armrests!'. His posture matched the look in his eyes. Tired. Stiff. I had realised before that I looked nothing like them. My hair was long, usually braided. Opposing their grey eyes, mine glowed dark green. And my skin was darker than both of theirs. I was of average height, average weight, average everything. Nothing special.  


My thoughts were interrupted when the lights went out. Michael looked up.  


"I'll go and check what happened." He stood up, walking towards the stairs leading down to the basement. Ivory and I moved to sit in front of the fireplace while waiting for him to come back.  


We waited like this for a while. There was no sound except for the rain, crashing onto the window in a way that could only be described as violent.  


"Michael?" Ivory raised her voice only slightly while calling out her cousin's name. No response. She got up, grabbing my wrist and dragging me along as well. I unlocked my phone and turned on the flashlight while we headed to the basement.  


"Mica!" Ivory yelled into the basement, going down two stairs each step. She ran into the pitch-black room. I came in a few moments after her. The phone's flashlight lit the room. I looked around for Michael. Nothing.  


"Boo!" We could barely take another step when Michael jumped up behind a few crates of books. Ivory screeched and fell onto me, throwing both of us off balance. The two of us collapsed onto the floor while Michael started laughing.  


"Michael! Why did you do that?" Ivory seemed furious. She stood up and walked over to her cousin, hitting him behind the head.  


"I thought it would be funny! Ow, don't hit me!" He covered his head with his hands. "Anyways, the power's going to be back on in barely two minutes. We can head back upstairs."  


"Fine. We're all going to sleep, today's been a long day." Ivory grabbed both our arms and started dragging us towards the spare rooms.

\-------

I didn't expect that I would be woken up by a scream.  


The shrill ringing was close by. Somewhere on the same floor. I got out of bed and ran out, quickly spotting Michael behind me. And then it hit me that the screaming was coming from Ivory's room.  


"Ivory! Open the door!" I knocked on her door. It was locked from the inside.  


She unlocked the door a few moments later. Her hands were shaking.  


"What happened?" I walked in, regretting my decision after barely a step inside. A corpse lay on the ground with its face still in a silent scream. I'm not going to go into the details, but all I can say is that I felt like throwing up.  


"Ivory. Focus here. Follow my breathing." Michael was trying to help calm Ivory down. This might be the first time I've seen him be kind to her. There was something like concern on his face, half-masked by tiredness. "Do you remember what happened? Wasn't your door locked from the inside?"  


"I don't... I don't know. I just woke up and... and there i-it was..." Ivory trailed off. She seemed calmer than before, but she still had dread in her voice.  


"Michael. Leave her alone. She just found a dead body in her room. Go and call the cops."  


"Got it." He quickly called the police, who were at the front door in barely under ten minutes.

\-------

"Did you guys hear that there's a new play? I say we should go see it so that we can relax a bit. Everything's been so tense for the past few days, and I'm sick of it."  
Michael was the one to break the silence. After the dead body, no one spoke more than what was necessary. Ivory had lost her typical energetic nature. I couldn't focus while reading. Even Michael was quieter than usual. We also couldn't open the library after the incident-they said it would be safer if no strangers came in-so none of us had anything to do except kill time.  


"It could help," I responded. "Ivory? What do you think?"  


"Sure." She smiled half-heartedly. "Sounds like a good idea."  


"Well then, let's go. It starts in an hour." He stood up, stretching. "Meet you guys here in fifteen." Michael and Ivory ran up to their rooms. I changed into some proper clothes, which meant a recently washed pair of black jeans and a matching hoodie. My clock said that it was 4:38 PM. If we left in ten minutes, we'd reach the theatre at around 5 PM.  


I walked down the stairs. Michael and Ivory were waiting in front of the door.  


"Great! Let's go, we don't want to miss the play." Michael walked out of the door. Ivory and I followed him out.  


It took us a seven-minute walk to get to the theatre, plus five minutes to buy our tickets. The play was just about to start as we sat down. I was sitting between Ivory and Michael.  


The pamphlet next to my chair said that we were watching Hamlet. The unique part of this theatre was that if you turned off the lights, you could only see the stage and nothing else. So, when the lights dimmed, that was the case. Of course, I knew that Michael was sitting on my right and Ivory on my left, but I couldn't see their faces.  


After -spoiler alert- Polonius' death, I felt a warm hand on mine. Since it came from the right, I knew it was Ivory.  


"Ivory? What happened?"  


"I feel weird. Gut feeling. I don't know." She shrugged.  


"Don't ignore it if it’s a gut feeling, but try to keep watching. It'll take your mind off of things." I gave her hand a soft squeeze before moving my arm to use my fist as a headrest.  


I barely realized the knife until there was a moment of blinding pain, and then nothing.

\-------

"Satya?" Ivory nudged the other. No response. She shook Satya's shoulder. It was a bit wet, a bit sticky. Wait. Shoulders aren't supposed to be wet or sticky.  


That was when the lights turned on. Right there stood Satya's dead body, limp against the seat. It took her a few seconds to take it in before she screamed. 

\-------

Shame. It was a shame.  


Michael sat in the cab, staring out of the window. Satya was dead, Ivory was arrested because they thought she was the murderer. She even had blood on her hand, and the knife handle was pointing toward her. Wasn't it obvious? People could be so ignorant sometimes.  


Michael loved books of all kinds, but literature always was his first pick. It gave him a chance to know what people from years ago, whether it was one year or one century. It was fascinating to see others’ ideas put so freely into words. Each page contained a new idea. Maybe even a new target, depending on Michael’s mood.  


He unwrapped the peppermint and ate it. Michael sighed and looked out the window, watching as the buildings faded away.


End file.
